ENG – Why are white people living abroad called expatriates, while black people who work and live outside of their native countries are defined as immigrants? This ques­tion was put forward by a Togolese businessman in an opinion column published on the Silicon Africa web­site, and reported by the British dai­ly newspaper The Guardian.

But things seem relatively clear. An expatriate, from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (homeland), is someone who has left their country, volunta­rily or otherwise. So what are the origins of the above distinction? Is there a link with the socio-professio­nal status of different people, defi­ning expatriates as highly qualified immigrants? Or is it rather based on persisting prejudice? Why are high-ranking African executives living in Europe called immigrants, instead of expatriates?“Immigrant” is not a dirty word, however. French law defines an im­migrant as someone born abroad but residing in France, which explains the frequent confusion between the terms “immigrant” and “forei­gner”. If someone is born in France to non-French parents, and refuses French nationality upon reaching the age of majority, they will remain a foreigner but cannot be called an immigrant. However, if someone is born abroad and becomes a French citizen, they are of course no longer a foreigner, but remain an immi­grant. This is the backdrop to the regular debate surrounding the sen­sitive expression français de souche, or “pure French person”. It was ori­ginally used in the colonial era to distinguish Europeans from North Africans, but has more recently been taken up by the extreme right wing to set “pure” French people apart from immigrants and descendants of immigrants. It is easy to see how this imaginary ethnic reconstruction threatens national cohesion. And those using the term to political ends seem to have forgotten that a signi­ficant number of French people have immigrant ancestors in their family trees. Citizenship is another ambi­guous notion. Being a French citizen traditionally means holding French nationality, but while this is a ne­cessary condition, it is not enough. Citizens must also enjoy the accom­panying civil and political rights. But the link between nationality and citizenship is disappearing with the growth of the European Union. Since the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, citizens of one Union State residing in another may take part in local and European elections, and stand for election themselves. In this case, they have the essential elements of citizenship – voting rights– without having the nationality of the country in which they vote.This is how European citizenship becomes a reality, even if there are contrasting situations within the Union. In Latvia, citizenship is re­served for people who had it before 1940, and their descendants. Rus­sians, Belarusians and Ukrainians who arrived during the Soviet era are therefore excluded. These “non-citizens” – as indicated on their passports – are not allowed to vote, nor are they able to work in cer­tain parts of the civil service. But they can travel to Russia without a visa, which may serve as some small consolation…

Israel, on the other hand, encourages immigration, on the condition that the migrants are Jewish. Every year several tens of thousands of them take part in Aliyah (“ascen­sion”, in Hebrew). African illegal im­migrants are not welcome, however. Some 50,000 Sudanese and Eritrean people are confined to a neighbo­rhood of Tel Aviv by the authorities. Due to insufficient diplomatic rela­tions with Sudan, and the fact that Eritrea has one of the world’s worst dictatorships, they cannot be depor­ted. A term that crops up a lot to de­fine these asylum seekers is “infiltra­tors”, which is the same term used to describe Palestinians who cross the Israeli border to commit attacks.To bring things back to France, a country also faced with an unpre­cedented influx of illegal immi­grants, semantic confusions are frequent. Afghans, Syrians, Soma­lians, Maghrebis, West Africans and others are all put into the same category of illegal migrants. Yet se­mantically, someone fleeing violence, persecution or war is a “refugee”, or an “asylum seeker” if their demand for refugee status is being processed. And as the specialists will remind us, a migrant is a person who has lived for more than one year outside of their country of citizenship.One thing is sure: no one thinks about using the term “expatriates” to define the hundreds of thousands of people arriving on European shores.

It is unheard of. In France, McDonald’s has long stood for the triumph of junk food, economic imperialism, and the spread of American culture. French farmer and politician José Bové shot to fame when he destroyed a McDonald’s restaurant, and for four years, the inhabitants of Oléron have been fighting to keep the fast-food chain from opening a restaurant on...

“In the city of lights, love, and romance, it is now possible to take in a sweeping, flower-filled scene of the River Seine and the historic Notre Dame cathedral — all while emptying one’s bladder in a totally legal, even environmentally friendly way.” Not on a tree, adds the Washington Post, but by using one of the new public urinals...

On the night of July 30, 2018, a white man shot at a group of Arab teens in the suburbs of Beaune, a city in eastern France, and injured seven. According to the U.S. magazine The Nation, French media downplayed the incident as gang-related violence instead of portraying it for what it is: a hate crime. But France does not...